their sale; whereas the former diminish their sail as the wind increases. A blaze first pleases, and then tires the sight. A great man admits the law of the universe is progress-higher and higher development-larger acquisitions; he pants for profounder views-purer light. The great eras in the history of the globe-the records of the past imprinted on its crust-the annals of time-the growth of knowledge, literature, science, social morality, all in a state of progress, transition, these all tell the same tale. A great man keeps prominently before his mental vision that fine saying of old Polonius to his son, with which he closes his sundry pieces of advice :

“This above all-to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man."

A great man knows when the clay is marred, no potter can make anything of it, but something according to its condition. It is a common saying, and very true, that people would be more happy if they were more virtuous. A great mind remembers that many would be more virtuous if they were more happy. Comfortable circumstances are very conservative of honesty and honour. A wise man knows good health is a sine qua non to a man's making the best of life; that, all the parts of the physical structure being sound and good, fitted for their work, and constantly acting in harmony with each other, not only make the body an efficient and nimble servitor for the soul, but are productive of that buoyant and pleasurable consciousness which attends health, and which of itself makes a man feel it a privilege to live. He knows obscu

rations and eclipses now and then will occur to the best, but that under the cloud is not the silvery tongue, but the silver lining. As touching the charms of life-there are a thousand things in this world to afflict and sadden; but oh! how many that are beautiful and good! The world teems with beauty-with objects that gladden the eye, and warm the heart. We might be happy if we would. There are ills we cannot escape-the approach of disease -death, of misfortune, sundering of earthly ties, and the cankerworm of grief; but a vast majority of the evils that beset us might be avoided.

The cause of intemperance, interwoven as it is with the ligaments of society, is one which never strikes but to destroy. There is not one bright page upon record of its progress; nothing to shield it from the heartiest execrations of the human race. It should not exist-it must not. Do away with all this; let wars come to an end; and let friendship, charity, love, purity, and kindness mark the intercourse between man and man. We are too selfish, as if the world was made for us alone. How much happier we should be, were we to labour more, and earnestly, to promote each others' good. Gon has blessed us with a home, which is not all dark: rays of lightning we have in the midst of deep night. There is sunshine everywhere-in the sky-upon the earth; there would be in most hearts, if we would look around us. The storms die away-the bright sun shines outGOD reigns in heaven. Murmur not at a creation so beautiful; and who can live happier than we? If greatness consists in goodness, detesting persecution and

superstition, then-how few great minds we have, or have had in the world! St. Paul, Montaigne, and Shakspere, were certainly mental leviathans;-not so much in what they said, as in what they did; not because the head was capacious and comprehensive were they great, but because their hearts corresponded, and the duality were co-workers. The triune reformers upon a grand scale, were all men who were well read in self-knowledge, as well as a knowledge of the worldlings; and moreover had in rich store much zeal, sincerity, and simplicity. There is such a thing as the majesty of simplicity, as well as the majesty of the people. Great souls hold no terms with pretensions; with them the poor puddles of calumnies and credulities are ignored. The triad reformers just named, were non-sectarians-not cribb'd, cabin'd, or confined by low creeping conformity, nor were their heads and hearts contracted by narrow creeds and formularies. None of the three were red-tapists, routinists, or time-servers. Certainly St. Paul hints that we are to be all things to all men, on an especial occasion, to win some; but yet he could say "excepting these bonds;" wept over the hypocrites, the pampered devices of a cankered civilisation ; creatures full of gall and pride, in proportion as they are empty of great truths; because he "loved the brethren.” The world was his parish; and as it was then, so is it Because he was an universalist-not a Pharisee or Saducee-the world and its laws hated him, persecuted him even unto the death. Jealousy and envy are delighted to have a kick at Aristides.

now.

He is no small man who steps out of the ranks, and

evidences by his conduct-I am myself alone; I am accountable to GOD-not to perishable man. It is not to be told how many souls are hindered in their growth by being kept within petty enclosures. Surely the greatest happiness to the greatest number principle, cannot be gainsaid.

A great mind would say-We desire to see British authority in India rest upon the willing obedience of a contented people; and there cannot be contentment where there is general confiscation, and that insidious maladyRoutine. Mr. Holcroft we may instance as a specimen of a great man; not being one of that section that insists upon grafting dead branches of the past upon the vital limbs of the present. Nothing was more foreign to his noble mind than manners made to order. Perhaps the finest things in Hugh Trevor are, the account of an author, found in Wilmot's pocket, after he had attempted to drown himself; and the song of Gaffer Gray. Both of these I shall extract as they are short and detached, and—in my humble opinion at least-exquisite pieces of writing. The paper found in Wilmot's pocket, after the rash, and almost fatal act to which he had been driven by repeated disappointment and extreme distress, is as follows:"This body, if ever it should be found, was once a thing which, by way of reproach among men, was called an author. It moved about the earth despised and unnoticed, and died indigent and unlamented. It could hear, see, feel, smell, and taste, with as much quickness, delicacy, and force, as other bodies. It had desires and passions like other bodies, but was denied the use of them by such

as had the power and the will to engross the good things of this world to themselves. The doors of the great were shut upon it; not because it was infected with disease, or contaminated with infamy, but on account of the fashions of the garments with which it was clothed, and the name it derived from its forefathers; and because it had not the habit of bending its knee where its heart owed no respect, nor the power of moving its tongue to glaze the crimes, or flatter the follies, of men. It was excluded the fellowship of such as heap up gold and silver; not because it did-but for fear it might ask a small portion of their beloved wealth. It shrinks with pain and pity from the haunts of ignorance, which the knowledge it possessed could not enlighten, and from guilt that its sensations were obliged to abhor. There was but one class of men with whom it was permitted to associate, and those were such as had feelings and misfortunes like its own; among whom it was its hard fate frequently to suffer imposition from assumed worth and fictitious distress. Beings of supposed benevolence, capable of perceiving, loving, and promoting merit and virtue, have now and then seemed to flit and glide before it. But the visions were deceitful; ere they were distinctly seen, the phantoms vanished. Or, if such things do exist, it has experienced the peculiar hardship of never having met with any, in whom both the purpose and the power were fully united. Therefore, with hands wearied with labour, eyes dimmed with watchfulness, veins but half nourished, and a mind at length subdued by intense study, and a reiteration of unaccomplished hopes,-it was